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Banned
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It is probably "just an oversight", these offenses against combat wounded US soldiers...the conditions at Walter Reed hospital and the following demands for "payback" of enlistment bonuses....
If so, how come the president didn't neglect to use the wounded troops for his own PR purposes, but not pre-empt these offenses against them, by his government?
How come he sets "a record for the most vacation time enjoyed by any POTUS, while he says "we are at war", and these offenses to our troops keep happening?
Quote:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0070725-4.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 25, 2007
President Bush Jogs with Wounded Soldiers, Discusses Care For Returning Wounded Warriors
South Lawn
4:25 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: I've been running with Max and Allen -- I mean, Neil. I met these guys at Walter Reed. Neil lost both legs, and he told me he's going to run with me on the South Lawn of the White House. Max lost his leg, and he told me he was going to be jumping out of airplanes with the 101st Airborne. Sure enough, he's jumping out of airplanes with the 101st Airborne, and along with Neil, he's running on the South Lawn.
President George W. Bush meets with wounded veterans U.S. Army Sgt.Neil Duncan (Ret.), left, and U.S. Army Specialist Max Ramsey, right, for a jog Wednesday, July 25, 2007 around the South Lawn of the White House. White House photo by Eric Draper Running with these two men is incredibly inspirational for me. And it should be inspirational to anybody who has been dealt a tough hand....
<img src="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/images/20070725-4_wg8o0655-250h.jpg">
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Quote:
http://kdka.com/kdkainvestigators/mi....2.571660.html
Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back
Reporting
Marty Griffin
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.
To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.
<h3>Now men and women who have lost arms, legs, eyesight, hearing and can no longer serve are being ordered to pay some of that money back.</h3>
One of them is Jordan Fox, a young soldier from the South Hills.
He finds solace in the hundreds of boxes he loads onto a truck in Carnegie. In each box is a care package that will be sent to a man or woman serving in Iraq. It was in his name Operation Pittsburgh Pride was started.
Fox was seriously injured when a roadside bomb blew up his vehicle. He was knocked unconscious. His back was injured and lost all vision in his right eye.
A few months later Fox was sent home. His injuries prohibited him from fulfilling three months of his commitment. A few days ago, he received a letter from the military demanding nearly $3,000 of his signing bonus back.
"I tried to do my best and serve my country. I was unfortunately hurt in the process. Now they're telling me they want their money back," he explained.
It's a slap for Fox's mother, Susan Wardezak, who met with President Bush in Pittsburgh last May. He thanked her for starting Operation Pittsburgh Pride which has sent approximately 4,000 care packages.
He then sent her a letter expressing his concern over her son's injuries, so she cannot understand the U.S. Government's apparent lack of concern over injuries to countless U.S. Soldiers and demands that they return their bonuses.
While he's unsure of his future, Fox says he's unwavering in his commitment to his country.
"I'd do it all over again... because I'm proud of the discipline that I learned. I'm proud to have done something for my country," he said.
But Fox feels like he's already given enough. He'll never be able to pursue his dream of being a police officer because of his wounds and he can't believe he's being asked to return part of his $10,000 signing bonus.
KDKA contacted Congressman Jason Altmire on his behalf. He says he has proposed a bill that would guarantee soldiers receive full benefit of bonuses.
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His thoughts are "with them"? If that was true, could offenses against the wounded, as described above, or at Walter Reed hospital really still be happening? Does the president's incompetence know any bounds?
Quote:
http://kdka.com/topstories/Susan.War....2.389042.html
* May 10, 2007 9:17 pm US/Eastern
Presidential Honor Bittersweet For Local Family
To help with Operation Pittsburgh Pride, you can visit their Web site.
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― President Bush comes to our area tomorrow to speak to the graduates at St. Vincent College and to honor a couple of local volunteers.
One of those volunteers has been collecting and sending necessities to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. But for the organziers of Operation Pittsburgh Pride, the effort has taken a tragic turn in the past week.
Susan Wardezak got a phone call early this morning and learned her son, Jordan, who has been serving in Iraq, was injured when his Bradley armored vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. The explosion was so bad it blew the the armor off of it.
"In the commotion there was a sniper near the wreckage and he opened fire," Ron Wardezak, Jordan's father, tells KDKA. "Jordan took the majority of it physically by the rollover. He wasn't shot fortunately but five of the soldiers that were with him were killed in the accident. Some were shot."
Jordan's suffering from a severe concussion and he has limited vision in his right eye. It's second time he has been wounded.
Not long after Jordan's Army unit arrived in the country, Susan needed an outlet for her anxiety and started answering the soldier's small personal needs that her son would tell her about by email.
Now called Operation Pittsburgh Pride, the Wardezak's have overseen the sending of more than 2,000 boxes, which is why she will be honored by the President when he arrives tomorrow.
For a moment, Susan will have the ear of the President. But she says she won't make a personal plea.
"I don't think it's fair of me to ask the President to bring my son," she said. "I've thought about that too, okay he's been hurt twice but I don't think its fair of me to ask him to bring my son home, because there are so many other mothers out there that [...] that's what gets me they don't even get to bring their kids home."
The Wardezaks say it's too soon to know if Jordan's most recent injuries are serious enough to bring him home. In seven months, his unit has lost 20 percent of its personnel.
To help with Operation Pittsburgh Pride, you can visit their Web site.
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Quote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17160574/
Forced to battle the system at Walter Reed
Wounded soldiers face neglect, frustration at Army’s top medical facility
....On the worst days, soldiers say they feel like they are living a chapter of "Catch-22." The wounded manage other wounded. Soldiers dealing with psychological disorders of their own have been put in charge of others at risk of suicide.
Disengaged clerks, unqualified platoon sergeants and overworked case managers fumble with simple needs: feeding soldiers' families who are close to poverty, replacing a uniform ripped off by medics in the desert sand or helping a brain-damaged soldier remember his next appointment.
"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."
Soldiers, family members, volunteers and caregivers who have tried to fix the system say each mishap seems trivial by itself, but the cumulative effect wears down the spirits of the wounded and can stall their recovery.
"It creates resentment and disenfranchisement," said Joe Wilson, a clinical social worker at Walter Reed. "These soldiers will withdraw and stay in their rooms. They will actively avoid the very treatment and services that are meant to be helpful."
Danny Soto, a national service officer for Disabled American Veterans who helps dozens of wounded service members each week at Walter Reed, said soldiers "get awesome medical care and their lives are being saved," but, "Then they get into the administrative part of it and they are like, 'You saved me for what?' The soldiers feel like they are not getting proper respect. This leads to anger."
<h3>This world is invisible to outsiders. Walter Reed occasionally showcases the heroism of these wounded soldiers and emphasizes that all is well under the circumstances. President Bush, former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and members of Congress have promised the best care during their regular visits to the hospital's spit-polished amputee unit, Ward 57.</h3>
"We owe them all we can give them," Bush said during his last visit, a few days before Christmas. "Not only for when they're in harm's way, but when they come home to help them adjust if they have wounds, or help them adjust after their time in service."
Along with the government promises, the American public, determined not to repeat the divisive Vietnam experience, has embraced the soldiers even as the war grows more controversial at home. Walter Reed is awash in the generosity of volunteers, businesses and celebrities who donate money, plane tickets, telephone cards and steak dinners.
Yet at a deeper level, the soldiers say they feel alone and frustrated. Seventy-five percent of the troops polled by Walter Reed last March said their experience was "stressful." Suicide attempts and unintentional overdoses from prescription drugs and alcohol, which is sold on post, are part of the narrative here.
Vera Heron spent 15 frustrating months living on post to help care for her son. "It just absolutely took forever to get anything done," Heron said. "They do the paperwork, they lose the paperwork. Then they have to redo the paperwork. You are talking about guys and girls whose lives are disrupted for the rest of their lives, and they don't put any priority on it."
Family members who speak only Spanish have had to rely on Salvadoran housekeepers, a Cuban bus driver, the Panamanian bartender and a Mexican floor cleaner for help. Walter Reed maintains a list of bilingual staffers, but they are rarely called on, according to soldiers and families and Walter Reed staff members.
Evis Morales's severely wounded son was transferred to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for surgery shortly after she arrived at Walter Reed. She had checked into her government-paid room on post, but she slept in the lobby of the Bethesda hospital for two weeks because no one told her there is a free shuttle between the two facilities. "They just let me off the bus and said 'Bye-bye,' " recalled Morales, a Puerto Rico resident.
Morales found help after she ran out of money, when she called a hotline number and a Spanish-speaking operator happened to answer.
"If they can have Spanish-speaking recruits to convince my son to go into the Army, why can't they have Spanish-speaking translators when he's injured?" Morales asked. "It's so confusing, so disorienting."
Soldiers, wives, mothers, social workers and the heads of volunteer organizations have complained repeatedly to the military command about what one called "The Handbook No One Gets" that would explain life as an outpatient. Most soldiers polled in the March survey said they got their information from friends. Only 12 percent said any Army literature had been helpful.
"They've been behind from Day One," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who headed the House Government Reform Committee, which investigated problems at Walter Reed and other Army facilities. "Even the stuff they've fixed has only been patched."
Among the public, Davis said, "there's vast appreciation for soldiers, but there's a lack of focus on what happens to them" when they return. "It's awful."
Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, commander at Walter Reed, said in an interview last week that a major reason outpatients stay so long, a change from the days when injured soldiers were discharged as quickly as possible, is that the Army wants to be able to hang on to as many soldiers as it can, "because this is the first time this country has fought a war for so long with an all-volunteer force since the Revolution."....
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